Russell Simmons says Trump used racial slurs in front of him
Russell Simmons, in an interview with Fortune magazine, talked about his 30-year relationship with Donald Trump.
He said that he was able to be friends with people like Trump and Roger Ailes because “I can believe in them, I can like them,” despite their different political beliefs.
That said, he still does not think Trump is a “suitable person for the presidency,” in part because of the racist and anti-Semitic comments he has made over the years.
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“People carry beliefs that are hurtful, none of us are enlightened … I would laugh off things he said that were off-color, that kind of didn’t represent my viewpoints. Certainly, I heard things that seemed a little racist.”
Some of the things he heard were anti-black and Islamophobic.
“The fear,” Simmons said, “is that his statements would take people who would never even admit to having those seeds of hate in them, and water those seeds, and then those people would say things they wouldn’t even imagine saying, and then it became the norm.”
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In a previous interview with CNN Money in September, Simmons stated, “[Donald] has said racist things for 30 years.
“White supremacy, he’s the epitome of it,” Simmons went on. “He represents the image of white supremacy more than any candidate I’ve seen.”
